by Candolin Cook on
WHILE NEW MEXICANS LOVE their inimitable regional cuisine, they also crave dishes from around the world, with or without the addition of green chile.
As the largest city in the state, Albuquerque is home to a sizable and incredibly diverse population of foreign-born and second-generation restaurateurs who prepare specialties from Southeast Asia to West Africa to Central America—and most places in between. When it comes to European cuisine, we tend to be most familiar with, and have greater access to, foods originating from the western or southern regions of the continent—Italy, France, Spain, Greece. However, the Albuquerque area is fortunate to have an assortment of vibrant Central and Eastern European cuisines to savor as well.
At the foothills of the Sandía Mountains lies a German micro-bakery with macro appeal. Near Uptown, a busy deli takes its time to carefully prepare delicacies from Poland and Ukraine. And, in Rio Rancho, a local institution carries on a proud legacy of serving a German immigrant’s world-class strudel and schnitzel.
Red Rock Deli sits in an unassuming strip mall off San Mateo Boulevard, but step through its heavy glass door and patrons are transported to a world bursting with bright flavors. The specialty grocery store stocks hard-to-find imported items, such as pickled herring, packaged kutia (wheat-berry pudding), and Bulgarian cheeses. Its kitchen offers traditional dishes like smoky Polish sausage with tangy house-made sauerkraut, tender pork-stuffed cabbage, and a hearty Ukrainian borscht.
“True Ukrainian borscht has beans,” says chef and co-owner Alissa Toczek. In addition to navy beans, her rendition of the brothy beet soup has tender morsels of potato, carrot, and red cabbage, and is served with a crusty roll and a side of sour cream. “Borscht ingredients and techniques vary from region to region, like pizzas do,” she notes.
Born in Soviet Ukraine, Toczek imagined that a life in the United States would mean glitz, glamor, and Hollywood. That is, until she arrived in 2011 and an astrologer informed her that her true calling was feeding people—much to her chagrin, initially. Not one to challenge fate, Toczek began experimenting in the kitchen, conducting culinary research here and abroad, and taking cooking classes online, which she still does regularly. “Me and [celebrity chef] Gordon Ramsay are Scorpios, and those people don’t look for easy ways,” she says. “We do the work.”
All of it has paid off. Toczek joined her equally driven Polish husband, Mark Toczek, in opening his second deli (the first is in Blanca, Colorado) in Albuquerque in 2014. In 2021, Hollywood came calling for the Toczeks after all, when Red Rock Deli was featured on Guy Fieri’s Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
The chef says the appearance was “destiny” since one of Fieri’s cookbooks was among the first she purchased on her culinary journey. The timing of Fieri’s visit was also fortuitous. The pandemic had brought lean times, Toczek says, but after the episode aired in January 2022, the deli became so popular that they expanded in 2023.
Burqueños clamor for the deli’s plump pierogi (available in 11 filling combinations, including vegan options), perfectly fried pork schnitzel, and the beloved Italian beef sandwich. “I don’t believe in limiting your borders,” Alissa explains of the presence of Chicago’s iconic sandwich, as well as hamburgers, on Red Rock’s menu.
However, the most rewarding aspect of the deli for the Toczeks comes from sharing their native dishes with the local community, especially with those who are far from home. “This food brings up a lot of memories for people,” she says. “Everyone is so appreciative of what we do. They bring us Christmas presents, write ‘Please don’t close’ on their receipts. It’s moments like that that make us think, Maybe we are doing something for a lot of people.”
Two other local businesses catering to the international community are Dagmar’s Specialties, in Rio Rancho, and the Albuquerque micro-bakery Das Brotkoerbchen (meaning “the bread basket”). Both focus on German delicacies, and it may come as a surprise that New Mexico’s German population is the third-largest immigrant group in the state, comprising 2.4 percent of the total number of foreign-born residents—a number that’s double the national average. “I’d guess 95 percent of our customers are [of German ancestry],” says Dagmar’s general manager and chef, Anthony, who declined to give a surname. “They come from all over the state—Española, Carlsbad, Taos.”
Although the bakery/grocery store/restaurant has seen several iterations and locations since the late Dagmar Schulze Mondragon started it in the mid-1990s, its current rendition has proved especially popular with those seeking traditional German fare. “Dagmar made such a big mark on the German community here,” says her close friend Michael Almanzar, who bought the business after the beloved cook’s passing in February 2023. “Being from Germany myself, I knew we couldn’t close it. So I stepped in for her and her customers. It’s been rewarding.”
Upon entering the cozy specialty shop, customers are greeted by a large glass case filled with an assortment of German chocolate and cheesecakes, delicately layered puff pastries, and Dagmar’s signature fruit and cheese strudels topped with glistening pearl sugar crystals. The restaurant offers to-go breakfast and lunch options, such as Dagmar’s Authentic Jägerschnitzel (breaded pork loin topped with mushroom gravy and a side of homemade spaetzle), house-made bratwursts, and Hungarian goulash. (Earlier this year, renovations were underway to create a dine-in space as well.)
Keeping Schulze Mondragon’s legacy alive means making her golden strudels, brötchen (rolls), schnitzels, and Black Forest cake just the way she did. “Dagmar was a typical German. When she taught me her recipes, she would not let me write anything down,” says Anthony, who runs the kitchen. “They are all in my head, and I promised her I would teach people the same way. Why change something that works?”
For a more modern take on German baked goods, I signed up for Das Brotkoerbchen’s bread client list. The Albuquerque bakery’s owner Barbara Leiber-Klotz learned to bake from watching her mother in their small village in southwest Germany, but she says it was never her passion. “It wasn’t until I moved to the States and discovered I hated the bread here that I started making my own,” she says.
Her main quibble with American breads is the prevalence of industrial processed ingredients and the amount of sugar many bakeries use. Leiber-Klotz also didn’t like the way her body felt after consuming them. “Real bread should be simple,” she says, “good flour, water, salt, leaven, maybe some fresh yeast. But never additives like preservatives or emulsifiers.”
Leiber-Klotz has found that most Americans only know the “1950s version” of German baked goods, but there has been considerable evolution over the years. In particular, she prefers to make rustic breads and pastries that incorporate ancient grains. Flours made from heirloom grains such as einkorn, emmer, spelt, kamut, and quinoa are thought to be more nutritious and digestible, and they may have more-complex flavor profiles.
But the most important ingredient she uses is time. “Big bakeries don’t have the time to ferment their dough overnight,” she says. “It tastes fresher, holds better, and allows gluten to break down outside, not inside your body.”
During the pandemic, the hobby baker, like many other people, turned to her sourdough starter to keep busy. She began churning out a variety of fresh brötchens and German, Austrian, Swiss, and South Tyrolean breads and gifting them to her neighbors. Word of Leiber-Klotz’s delicious and crusty breads soon got out, and she found herself inundated with orders from friends and strangers. “It snowballed,” she laughs.
Three years later, Das Brotkoerbchen is a full-fledged cottage business that still operates out of Leiber-Klotz’s immaculate home kitchen with designated order and pickup days. Her bread clients receive a weekly text with each day’s menu options—soft German lye pretzels on Wednesdays, breads and a sweet pastry on Thursdays, and a variety of breakfast rolls every Sunday. That said, Leiber-Klotz doesn’t want her little bakery to get much bigger.
“It’s not about the money,” she says. “I do this because it’s fun; I get to meet new people and educate them. I want everyone to bake—and I think Americans can do better.”